Busy Busy Busy

 

The park is full and we are busy. 

I am in the shop every morning and Eddie is doing at least 2 loads of rubbish every day. He has a local boy helping him. People can't seem to tell the difference between green, brown and white bottles for the skip bins and put their rubbish in them too. 

The other mystery is how many lollies do kids need???? One boy came back 3 times yesterday for them. I don't think I have so sold many in such a short space of time.

The weather is still dry, but doesn't seem to be so warm. The other day there was a cool wind blowing. It has quite put us off going for a swim. Today is hotter and not so windy. There is now a total fire ban in Northland after a scrub fire near Arapahi today.

We had a nice few days with Abbey,( our granddaughter) even though she sat on Eddie's couch in his favourite position in the evening. We had a nice dinner one evening at the local pub. We took Nita and Helen too. Helen is working here and is Nita's sister in law.

We forgot Abbey needed a mask to wear on the bus, but luckily they had one at the information centre that opened just before the bus left. No mask no ride, so that could have been tricky. She would have had to travel with Eddie's clean hanky tied around her nose.

I hope Christmas was good for you all. We had a nice lunch with Nita and her family who are staying here and working in the takeaways. The weather was good so we sat outside and dined al fresco.

Almost ready for the campers

 

It is still sunny and hot. We get up to the mid to late 20's most days. We could so do with some rain. We had some one night about a week ago and the wind blew for the next 2 days and blew it all away.

The garden is coming along nicely. We are eating radishes, lettuce and silver beet.

I didn't jinx my plantar fasciitis by telling everyone it was getting better. I can even wear my jandals to the beach and back now without pain. Yay!!

Preparations for the influx of visitors is going full steam ahead. Three large skip bins for glass came in yesterday. Today Eddie and a local boy are emptying the bags we use through the year and putting the bottles into the bins. All the bags will be for plastic recycling over the next 6 weeks. The coke came today, so that will have to be loaded into the chillers tomorrow.

The camp is beginning to fill. Quite a few campers are here until just after Christmas or New Year. Eddie has begun doing the rubbish run in the mornings.

I did my last cleaning today. As from Wednesday I will be in only in the shop.

I have spent the week putting drinks into the chillers and ice cream into the freezers ready for our opening on the 23^rd. We are open in the afternoons 23^rd and 24^th and then from 8 to 6 or 8 I can't remember which. I will be doing the morning shifts 8 – 2, so not so bad.

We have had a few swims in the estuary and I thought it was getting a bit warmer on Sunday.

Eddie caught a couple of fish on Sunday, so fish for tea for 2 nights. We shared some with Nita.

There was a stick insect on my chair one day. I haven't seen one for ages.

A busy week

 

It is still sunny and warm. We were going to go for our first swim on Saturday. We had been trimming palm leaves, so that the lower leaves don't hit the caravans or campers and got really hot. By the time we had finished it had come over cloudy and windy, so we passed for another day. It was going to be Sunday, but I had a memory loss and had my shower. We finally got to the water on Monday. We were going to swim in the estuary, where the water is a bit warmer, but the tide was way out, so we went to the ocean beach. It was a bit cool, so it was in and out, but very refreshing.

Nita as grape vines in a paddock near the entrance. The pukeko are starting to nibble at them, so we covered them up last Saturday morning. There were lots of trailing vines in the way, so Eddie and I cut them off and Nita clipped the cover on. On Monday he went and collected up all the piles on the ground. There is always something to do.

On Sunday, Nita brought her mother out for a visit, so we got to meet her. She can't understand why she can't stay here. Nita said it was a hard drive taking her back to the home. Her mother kept asking when can I come home? She has been in the home for about 6 months. She had a fall and broke her hip. She is developing dementia too, so there is no way Nita can look after her. Quite sad for them both.

On Wednesday another lady and I sorted out all the lollies that have arrived. It took most of the day. On Thursday, started to fill the chillers up with the drinks that have arrived

There is more to come. The chillers aren't turned on yet, so it was easy to do with no cold air. I did, however, have to do the ice creams in the freezer. I had on a big coat and a hat. When I came out, my glasses steamed up and I couldn't see a thing ha ha. I didn't have to be in for long, so it wasn't too bad an experience.

On Tuesday we went into Whangarei and finished off a bit of Christmas shopping. We parked by the war memorial. I thought it was rather pretty with the gardens to one side. The four flags are (from left to right) New Zealand's. the navy, army and the air force.

The park name that I managed to cut off is the Laurie Hall park. I don't know who Laurie was, but the park is pretty.

Meet The Dogs

 

We have been keeping busy with our little tasks around the place. I told Eddie there was a leaking tap in the kitchen, so he went off to change the washer, but it turned into a major operation. Some one had cranked it off so hard a bit of the tap had broken and water was dripping into the wall cavity. So after a lot of muttering and cursing, it was fixed with a nice modern tap on it. Which looks very odd with the old fashion one that is the hot tap. Nita was pleased she didn't need to call out a plumber.

Nita went to Auckland on Sunday and then stayed the night at her sister's in Warkworth, so we were in charge. The dogs were a bit confused and after Eddie had feed them, they came back down to us. They did go home eventually at some stage of the night. They came down to see us just after 7 to say good morning. They are like having grandchildren. All the fun and no responsibility.

This is Benny. He came for a visit one day. They aren't allowed to go inside at home, but this time he came in quite happily. He has a bit of a hard time from Chaka who thinks Minty his his and Benny isn't allowed anywhere near her.

This is Chaka.  He's a big dog, but very gentle and loves pats and cuddles. It's not the best photo of him. I will have to take another.

This is Minty. Also needs a better photo. She is the spitting image of the jack russell we had, called Xena.  Which is a bit disconcerting. She is Benny's sister.

I have had planter fasciitis since about March and it seems to be getting better. At last. I haven't had any pain for 3 days, so fingers crossed. I stopped doing the exercises, as they seemed to be hurting my Achilles tendon and my foot stopped being sore at the same time. I don't know what helped what really, but it is nice to be pain free. I hope I haven't jinxed it by telling everyone! It's still feels a bit stiff when I stretch my foot.

There are lots of quails here. The babies are so cute They make me smile when I watch them run around. I think they must have 2 lots of babies in a season. I saw some really tiny ones yesterday with no feathers, just fluff. They look a bit like a fluffy walnut on legs. They can run really fast too for such little legs. I would take a picture of them, but they move too quickly for me.

The carrots and radishes are starting to pop through the ground. Always exciting when seeds appear. I was able to pick 2 radishes from my first planting today for our salad tonight.

Our granddaughter is coming up to see us from Dunedin on the 23^rd December. She will be with us for a few days and then going to Matamata to visit her other Grandma,. We are looking forward to catching up with her. Her mother's loss is our gain. Under normal circumstances she would have gone back to Australia for Christmas.